The thought of any upstart challenging the National Football League seems ludicrous in 2024. Considered the most powerful professional sports league on the planet, the NFL generated more than 20 billion dollars in revenue last year, according to Statista.
Simply put, it’s peerless.
But that wasn’t always the case.
The circuit celebrated its Silver Anniversary in 1944. And while it had established longevity after a quarter century of competition, it was not yet considered untouchable.
The league played a 10-game regular season 80 years ago, with a lineup that featured the Boston Yanks, Brooklyn Tigers, Card-Pitt (the Chicago Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for the season due to player shortages caused by World War II), Chicago Bears, Cleveland Rams, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins.
College football was king and the NFL was still primarily a regional operation, meaning intrepid souls who wanted to expand the pro game’s footprint had a real opportunity. And in 1944, the All-America Football Conference, Trans-American Football League and United States Football League all formed, taking aim at a piece of the play-for-pay pie.
Out of the gate first was the original iteration of the USFL, which was announced on July 24, 1944, in Philadelphia.
The league hoped to play its first season in 1945 – “war conditions permitting,” according to United Press International – and would feature Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Pittsburgh in the Eastern Division and Akron, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and Honolulu in the West.
Roland Donald Payne, a Pittsburgh industrialist who founded the USFL, said he had also received applications from investors in Seattle, Portland, Buffalo, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Dallas/Fort Worth.
The Honolulu entry had already been nicknamed the Bears and tapped F. J. Brickner as its head coach.
Due to travel issues, Honolulu would be based in California the first half of the season and play all its road games traveling from its West Coast base. The Bears would then return to the islands for the second half of the campaign and contest the rest of their slate at home.
Payne said that the clubs had posted anywhere from $60,000 to $250,000 in start-up costs.
Next up was the All-America Football Conference, which was introduced on September 2, 1944, in Chicago.
The brainchild of Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward, the AAFC would be a coast-to-coast league with teams owned by “men of millionaire incomes” and begin play in 1945. Flagship cities and their owners were reported to be: Chicago, (John L. Keeshin, president of trucking concern); New York, (Eleanor Gehrig, Lou Gehrig’s widow, and Ray J. Ryan, oil company president); Baltimore, (former heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney); Buffalo, (James Breuil and Will Bennett, oil company executives, and Sam Cordavano, construction company head); Cleveland, (Arthur McBride, taxicab magnate); Los Angeles, (actor Don Ameche and Christy Walsh, former newspaper syndicate director); and San Francisco, (Anthony J. Morabito and Allan E. Sorrell, co-owners of a lumber terminal concern, and Ernest J. Turre, construction company manager).
Ward added that prominent business leaders in Detroit, Philadelphia and Boston were also seeking franchises for those cities.
And the third challenger, the Trans-American Football League, announced its intentions on September 18, 1944, in New York.
League president Chick Meehan said Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia were charter members of the TAFL, and groups from Boston and Miami were also being considered.
Teams would travel to games almost exclusively via airplane (hence the “Trans-America” name) and the league was slated to begin play “after the war.”
For a while, it appeared that two of the three had a chance to be successful. The USFL made the biggest splash early on by convincing gridiron legend Red Grange to become commissioner. The AAFC countered by tapping “Sleepy Jim” Crowley as its commish; he was one of the “Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.”
The TAFL, meanwhile, was pushing for a merger with the NFL without ever playing a game. Meehan also hinted that if his league couldn’t find a suitable place to play in New York, it would give up the fight.
As WWII continued, starting play in 1945 wasn’t feasible for any of the newbies. Thus, they’d have another year to prepare.
The USFL and TAFL didn’t need it; they both called it quits on June 4, 1945.
Once the NFL announced that Brooklyn would make Yankee Stadium home, that convinced owners in those two fledgling organizations to fold since they were counting on use of the famed baseball grounds to host their New York area entries.
“With Yankee Stadium, I had plenty of ammunition,” Meehan told UPI. “Without it, I just had conversation.”
But the AAFC had already invested $3 million in players, coaches and franchises, and refused to give up. While it also coveted Yankee Stadium for its club, league officials said 30,000-seat Triboro Municipal Stadium would do just fine.
There were no AAFC games played in 1945, yet Ward and company continued to build a strong foundation. Ward said in December of that year the NFL had already paid more than $100,000 to keep its players from jumping to his league.
“Anyone of several of our teams has more money behind it than the entire National Football League,” he claimed.
NFL commissioner Elmer Layden (along with Crowley, one of the Four Horsemen), didn’t take the challenge seriously.
“They should first get a ball, then make a schedule, and then play a game,” he said.
In 1946 – with the United States Football League and Trans-American Football League distant memories – the All-America Football Conference proved it had balls. It also had a schedule and games.
Populating the league were the Buffalo Bisons, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago Rockets, Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Dons, Miami Seahawks, New York Yankees and San Francisco 49ers.
Although the NFL tried to dismiss their rivals, it became apparent early on that it was a quality operation with stars such as quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley of Cleveland, New York ballcarrier Frank Sinkwich and Los Angeles signal caller Angelo Bertelli.
By 1949, the AAFC was on par with the NFL – at least.
And just before its championship game between the 49ers and Browns, Cleveland, San Francisco and the Baltimore Colts, a franchise that replaced Miami in 1947, for the 1950 season, were admitted to the NFL.
The Dons merged with the Los Angeles Rams and the remaining AAFC clubs were shuttered.
While the 49ers (3-9) and Colts (1-11) struggled in their first NFL season, the Browns most certainly did not.
In September, the Browns defeated the two-time defending NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles, 35-10. NFL commissioner Bert Bell – who took over in 1946 – called the franchise from the (former) rival league, “the greatest team I ever saw.”
Cleveland won the American Conference with an 11-2 record (it beat the New York Giants, 8-3, in a conference tiebreaker game) and seized the NFL crown with a 30-28 victory over Los Angeles – which had several former Dons players on the roster.
After once looking down its nose at the AAFC, the NFL realized the addition of teams from the younger league made it better.
Of course, something like that could never happen today. But thanks to the seeds planted in 1944, remnants of the All-America Football Conference live on in the world’s premiere tackle football league.